


This Was Neverland

by theredhoodie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Related, F/M, Mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 19:25:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/969405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhoodie/pseuds/theredhoodie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was going to go back under to the bed picked out for her, she really was. She had no intentions of lollygagging. She dipped her head and swallowed, throat dry. One last glance around…one last glance she shouldn’t have taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Was Neverland

**Author's Note:**

> Got the sudden urge to write something Captain Swan. This turned more into a canon piece, something just small and not really anything shippy.
> 
> Lightly edited by myself, sorry for any mistakes.

Whatever Neverland was…it sucked. They'd been on this ship for what felt like months—it was actually barely a week—and had seen nothing but water the entire time. Charming made continuous comments about Hook's navigating skills and there had been many scuffles aboard. Everyone's tensions were high.

Emma Swan felt like a fish out of water, to be frank. She had never been on a cruise or even on a duck boat in Boston. She saved her money, she never did anything frivolous. She still had the same Volkswagen she had from ten years ago. She didn't like being out on open waters with no land in sight but thankfully she hadn't gotten sea sick yet. Maybe there was magic in this boat yet.

Everyone was asleep. The boat was drifting, anchor down. Maybe someone was awake, she didn't know. She should have known better than to wander around the deck at night. She had been warned against it by both Hook and Rumpelstiltskin. She should have  _known_  better.

But here she was, clutching her light sweater around her shoulders. The air was cold and the boat rocked beneath her bare feet.

For a pirate ship, the Jolly Roger was very nice. Maybe because it belonged in a fairytale and things in fairytales were always nice, no matter if they belonged to the villain.

She knew that she was doing this for Henry. This was to save Henry, wherever he was, whoever he was with. Her parents… _her_  parents were here with her, along with Regina and Rumpelstiltskin and Belle…people she would rather not have aboard with her to find her son. She tried reminding herself that Henry was Regina's son too…but it was so difficult.

She had never had anything that was just hers…not even her car since she had stolen it. But Henry…he was hers, no matter her choice to give him up. She couldn't do that again. That's why she was here.

Emma crossed her arms tightly across her chest and turned her eyes upward. Stars, an expanse of sky and twinkling dots to no end. She couldn't tell if the boat was moving or staying in place but bobbing up and down. She didn't know how to read the seas.

Letting out a soft breath, she dropped her chin to her chest and stared at her pale toes against the dark wooden deck. She should try getting sleep, but she could hardly rest not knowing where her son was or when they would find her. Hook seemed eager to get out of these waters yet they hadn't seen land for days. Or really… _ever_  after they'd gone through the ocean portal.

To think that she could have been a princess here in these magical lands, living an entirely different life…it was still mindblowing even after knowing that it was the truth for so many months. To think she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming…it was every girl's dream but her own.

It was really quiet. Too quiet. The type of quiet that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand and send a chill through her body that had nothing to do with a breeze, of which there was none. She couldn't even hear the lapping of water against the bottom of the ship.

She was going to go back under to the bed picked out for her, she really was. She had no intentions of lollygagging. She dipped her head and swallowed, throat dry. One last glance around…one last glance she shouldn't have taken.

It was deceptively difficult to see the figure with no moon in the sky, but it was there, a shadowy form in front of her. She barely had time to gasp before she was lifted off her feet as if she weighed nothing. Cool slippery hands hooked under her arms and their grip was terrible. She could already feel the bruises.

She kicked, always the fighter as she was lifted into the sky, away from the boat, the only sense of familiarity she had in this strange world.

"Let me go!" she hissed.

She shouldn't have.

If a shadow could grin, wide like the Cheshire cat, than the shadow holding Emma did just then.

Her eyes grew round as saucers as she realized her mistake, the hands loosening their grip, the seconds ticking by in her mind like slow motion. Her eyes were cast downward, at the boat, at the dark waters, and she saw someone, a dark figure on the deck.

"No, don't!" It was Hook, she recognized his voice. But his plea wasn't met. The hands holding her fell away and a yelp slipped from her lips as she heard her name yelled before she dropped into the cold waters.

The water was frigid, but she held herself together. She could do this. She was a perfectly fine swimmer. She forced herself not to panic and to hold her breath, to open her eyes and see what she could see…which was close to nothing.

There was no moon above in the sky to shine down and only an odd soft glow coming from the water deep below her. She couldn't tell which way was up or down and any sort of reality didn't seem to exist here. She tried moving upward but found herself closer to the glowing. Panic bubbled up in her stomach but she told herself to focus: she wasn't going to die here. She could do this.

Something swam by her, close, and she knew she didn't have much time left as bubbles escaped her lips. She could barely see, her mind as cloudy as the water around her. The thing swam by again and popped up in front of her face. Emma screamed, losing the last bit of breath in her lungs as the humanoid face blinked widely, watching her as her body began to accept the lack of air, the sensation of her limbs gone.

Webbed hands gripped her face, pulling open her lips, a mouth coming in contact with her own to fill her lungs with air, just enough so she didn't lose consciousness again.

She guessed the thing in front of her was a mermaid, half human and half fish, said to be things of beauty, but maybe not. Emma also remembered tales of these mermaids who dragged sailors down to their deaths and she started to struggle.

~8~

The very reason for Hook not wanting to stay on these waters any longer than necessary was because of his anticipation for something like this happening. He knew that Peter hadn't been transported to Storybrooke, there was no way that could ever happen. He was here, prowling the seas as always.

And then Killian came back and Peter was here for his usual brand of revenge. The Captain hadn't expected it to come in the form of Emma Swan dangling overhead. He knew these waters held secrets…he couldn't be sure he could get to her in time before the creatures below did.

But that wouldn't stop him from trying.

The less clothing the better for swimming, any good pirate knew that, and luckily his heavy leather layers were back in his room—even if he never actually slept—so he took a dive off the side of his ship, arms angled in front of him to slice through the water, cold like ice.

It was dark, but Hook knew these waters, at least as much as he could due to circumstances. The waters were dangerous and magical, ever changing. He had been trying to avoid Pan's main stretches, but it was impossible and this is where it landed them: him, risking his life for Emma, something she wouldn't do for him but he felt compelled to do for her anyway.

They each needed to show trust and what better way than to save someone's life?

He hated the cold that seeped right to his bones, the darkness of water with the eery glow from the mermaid's caves. It was more dangerous for him to be under these waters than a woman, but if Emma was still alive, he would try his best to save her. It wasn't the easiest to swim with one hand, the other having not even a hook for protection.

Mermaids were territorial. They didn't often set their caves close together. If anything, they would sing together as beauties above water—as that was their way, to rise above water and their humanoid top halves would become beautiful maidens with hypnotizing voices—but drag each sailor down to their own caves, far from each other. So he was hoping for just one beast to battle.

It didn't take him long to spot the two of them, Emma, struggling, the mermaid's sharp tail whipping around in the water. Emma should have been out of breath but she was still moving.

Killian stopped, floating there in the waters, gaining the attention of the mermaid, who opened its mouth of sharp teeth to screech and she pushed Emma aside and swam right at him. He had one shot at this, feeling the burning in his lungs start to build. He could hold his breath for quite some time, but he was only human in the end.

He had nothing but a dagger in the thin belt around his waist, which he grabbed and held in such a way that the half-beast rammed herself right into it. The water clouded with blood as the blade sliced through her throat. Hook shoved her down toward the depths with a kick that sent him towards Emma, who didn't look very conscious.

Tucking his handless arm across her back, he made it to the surface, knowing the topsy turvy way that up, down and around felt underwater here but which way really was the proper way to go.

Hook sucked in a breath the moment there was air, keeping Emma above water just by crushing her against his side, having no hand to help hold her.

"Emma?" No response. There wasn't a wave to be had. There was nothing but silence. Emma wasn't responding. "Oh come on, Swan, don't—"

"What the hell are you doing?" Charming's voice boomed down from the ship.

Killian couldn't resist an eye roll. "What does it look like? I just saved your daughter's life. Toss down the ladder." No questions.  _He_  was the Captain of the vessel everyone was currently housed on, he could still hold some form of authority here.

He swam awkwardly, the motion bringing Emma round. She sucked in a breath but her lungs were filled with water and she ended up flinging herself out of his grip and coughing up water before slipping under the surface, reappearing a moment later, looking around frantically, eyes falling onto the man treading water close to her.

"Hook?" she said, voice hoarse, brows furrowed. She remembered what happened in hazy detail. Lifted by a shadow, dropped in the water, mermaid…not much else.

"One and only, darling," he said, managing a smirk before Snow White's head appeared over the side of the Jolly Roger.

"Oh my god, Emma! Are you okay?" Her voice was sweet and skimmed off the otherwise quiet waters.

"I'm…I'm fine!" Emma called as loudly as she could, spotting the rope and wood ladder and swimming towards it slowly, her limbs feeling heavy.

Killian followed, holding the side steady for her to climb. "The next time you decide to walk around the deck after dark…best not," was all he said as she grabbed hold of the ladder.

She said nothing, heaving herself up, water cascading down from her hips and legs as she did so. She was fully dressed thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully. She wondered if that was why she hadn't been able to swim herself to safety and needed  _rescuing_.

Once up top, Emma was pulled into the welcoming warm arms of her parents, leaving Hook to pull himself up the side of his ship on his own. He landed with heavy feet, soaked through as Charming put his arm around Emma's shoulders and Snow rubbed Emma's upper arms to try to warm her.

"You should get inside and out of those clothes," he said to Emma, breaking the tender family moment.

"Excuse me?" Emma and Snow said simultaneously, turning around to face him.

He raised an eyebrow. "The water was freezing. Staying in wet clothes will probably make you sick. We can't have that," he replied, eyes on Emma.

For once in his long interactions with the Swan woman, he was being completely honest and not at all striking up some form of innuendo. They couldn't afford someone getting sick while searching through Neverland for Henry. The magic on the ship wasn't known to be of the healing type. At least not without some very dark strings attached.

Emma crossed her own arms and nodded.

"Emma, c'mon," Snow said, moving to take Emma back below deck.

"Wait, go on," Emma said instead, meeting her mother's eyes. "Why don't you go get some dry clothes? Maybe try to find something I can dry off with?"

Snow sucked in a short breath but nodded and she and Charming disappeared from view, leaving a shivering Emma Swan staring down a very soaked pirate.

"What was that?" she asked, her words not as blunt and sharp as usual as she tried to keep her teeth from chattering. "The…shadow and…the water was…" she frowned.

"Peter Pan," he offered. Her face registered the name. "He…these are his waters, it's difficult to travel them without him stopping by to nab any young boys I have on board. Or…play some nasty tricks." He had taken a few short steps closer to her as he was talking.

She squeezed her arms around herself, everything about her cold. "Oh…and the water? Why couldn't I swim to the surface myself?" She was holding strong despite her near death experience and her lack of knowledge that she was confessing she had.

"The currents run oddly in mermaid waters. Everything you think…it's usually the opposite." He paused before adding, "I know you don't need saving, Swan. But Neverland is full of things you don't understand."

The corners of her mouth turned down ever so slightly and she nodded once. It was an understanding. He knew she wasn't weak just because she had gotten caught off guard. She knew now that there was much about this world she didn't understand.

That was all she thought to give him, holding his gaze for a few extra seconds before turning to follow in her parents footsteps, hair hanging in wet clumps down her back. Half a dozen steps away she turned back around fully.

"Thank you," she said genuinely, having not said it before. He had saved her life. She knew she would have died if he hadn't jumped in after her.

He swallowed, eyes dropping to the deck for a moment. "My pleasure. Just don't make a habit of it," he said as a kind warning.  _It could very well happen again…No more walking outside alone, Emma_ …all things he could have said but they were already implied.

She smiled ever so slightly, more a courtesy than anything, before spinning around on her heel and ducking under the door that led to the living quarters down below.

Once she was completely out of sight, leaving Killian alone, he scanned the skies. No shadows. No mermaids broke the surface of the water, but he spotted the sun coming up over the horizon, the sky getting slightly brighter.

There was no reason for him to try to sleep any longer. Instead, he did as Emma was instructed and got out of his wet clothes and into his full getup, leathers included and the finishing touch being his curved hook.

He reminded himself of why Emma was doing this, why he was helping her. Because it was her most of all that he felt like helping. Not that pirates ever liked to help anybody, but this was different. He couldn't pinpoint it, but as he got behind the helm and the sun popped up over the horizon, fully lighting the sky, Emma returned to the deck, accompanied by the others on board and Killian's eyes found her easily. It wasn't that large of a ship, and there weren't many people needed to man a magical vessel. She still looked cold, having pulled on the thick jacket she had first come onto the ship with just days ago.

"Will you get this ship going  _now_ , Captain?" Regina's harsh voice cut through the mulling silence. "If I don't see land by end of day…"

"Believe me, the last thing I want to do is spend more time here, there's no need to threaten me," he said simply, glancing into the Queen's general direction before setting his eyes on Emma.

She could tell someone was looking at her and looked up. It was Hook, of course. She shouldn't have expected anyone else. The look they shared was of understanding she told herself. Of mutual…they didn't quite have trust yet. But they were getting there. Bit by bit, each time one of them saved the other or divulged just a bit more information  _accidentally_.

They had time to gain more trust as they came across more troubles. Because they would of course.

This was Neverland.


End file.
